John Kasich Knows That Working Together We Can Bring About Big Changes

John Kasich Says “Change Is Up To Us” in His New Book

From a Summary by Michael Monks, WVXU Cincinnati Edition, October 22, 2019

“What you do matters. What we do matters.”

This is the simple thesis by the former Governor of Ohio, John Kasich, which he hopes to spread with his latest book “It’s Up To Us: Ten Little Ways We Can Bring About Big Change.”

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John Kasich now says President Trump should be impeached

I ran for president twice then realized we the people can move our country forward, says John Kasich

Summary by USA Today, October 18, 2019

When I ran for president in 2016, I believed I could make a difference and set a positive example, but as I stepped away from the race I started to realize what I must have known on some level all along: Even though it matters who sits in the White House, it doesn’t mat­ter as much as we matter. The power of the presidency should not obscure or discount the power of the peo­ple.

Each of us has the ability to make as much of an impact in our communities as the president is able to make on a national or international scale. As a nation of caring, thinking, feeling people, we are not power­less in the grand scheme of our democracy; in fact, we can be profoundly powerful, in small ways that can have an enormous impact on the lives all around us.

All of which takes me to the central thesis of my new book: What you do matters. What we do matters. We are blessed with the ability to make a difference, to send a message to the powerful elites in Washington, to put it out there that the change we want to see is the change we’re prepared to make happen.

Presidents don’t (or shouldn’t) shape your daily life

Think about some of the great changes that have taken place in this country over the past 250 years. Think about some of the ways we’ve moved the nee­dle on progress and tolerance and opportunity. Most of the time, these changes have come about at the ground level. Societal change flows from the bottom up, and not from the top down, and it’s almost always driven by the passion and purpose of selfless individ­uals who push for a way to make these changes hap­pen — they demand them, really, and it doesn’t matter who’s sitting in office when the voices of the people have something to say.

Think about this, too: On a day-to-day basis, does the president truly affect you? Here again, not as much as most people think. Absolutely, the president can make a kind of statement about who we are on the world stage; for good or ill, he or she becomes the public face of our great nation. But I’ll tell you what really affects you: your family, your neighbors, your community, the road that needs repaving on the way into town, or the new turf field the booster club is hoping to lay in over at the high school so your stu­dent-athletes can practice in all kinds of weather.

What matters is how we do right by each other, how we collaborate with our coworkers, how we show kindness to those in need and how we receive kind­ness in return. It matters how we make room in our lives for faith and family and friendships. I want to spend some time on these things in the pages ahead because I believe they are important. In fact, I believe they are all-important.

Americans’ values are mostly in sync

Why does my opinion matter? Well, I have some experience in this area. I’ve served in public office for 30 years, including nine terms as an Ohio congressman and two terms as Ohio’s gov­ernor. I’ve run for president. Twice. I’ve got a pretty good idea how our government works at all levels, and how it doesn’t, and now that I’m out here in the private sector, I’d like to think I’ve learned a thing or two about how to contribute in a meaningful way to our American conversation.

By the way, a lot of people don’t remember that I ran for president in 2000, and the reason they don’t remember is because I didn’t get very far. I didn’t have a whole lot of name recognition back then, and I couldn’t raise a whole lot of money, so I left the race almost as soon as I entered it. I got a little bit further in 2016, when I joined a pack of 17 hopefuls seeking the Republican nomination — again, without a whole lot of name recognition or money, but this time I managed to hang in there long enough to be the last Republican standing against our eventual nominee.

What I discovered on the campaign trail — or, I should say, what I rediscovered as I met hundreds of thousands of people all across the country — was that our American ideal is very much alive in this country, and that the American heartland is very aptly named. America has a big heart. It’s a land of hope and plenty, where our shared values are mostly in sync, and where there are opportunities all around.

Don’t wait for push from Washington

Politicians can talk all they want about policy and programs, and political analysts can talk about the issues that divide us, but what the American people care about are the ways they can come together. They want to know that their elected officials hear them … that they see them … that they get them. …. I did. … And, now, I still do.

The American people want to make a difference where they work and live, and in my book I mean to shine a light on the ways we can move this country forward. Together. Without waiting for a push or for permission from Washington. It doesn’t take a lot, when you break it down. Mostly, it takes stepping away from our workaday worries and setting aside our differences and recognizing that we need to live a life bigger than ourselves.

We need to show up for the people in our lives, for the people in our com­munities. We need to stand and be counted. And we need to understand that it’s on each and every one of us to bring about the changes we seek. That’s a pretty powerful concept, don’t you think? To embrace the notion that there’s no silver bullet or magic potion for what ails America, and to accept responsibility for the America to come.

There is only us.

(John Kasich served two terms as governor of Ohio and nine terms in the House. This column is excerpted from his latest book, “It’s Up To Us: Ten Little Ways We Can Bring About Big Change,” published on October 15, 2019.)